Young Justice, New Generation - Chapter 1
by Corsicaa
Summary: A new group of young superheroes are recruited for Young Justice. Tiger Eye, Epsilon, Acedia, Orion, and Dusk are being trained in the new facility, the Tunnel of Sighs. Their unique powers and dynamic teamwork are put to the test when they encounter a sinister web of secrets whose influence stretches across continents, promising to destroy everything they know.


Anna Winston always looked tired. Her wispy white blonde hair was often unkempt and fell in tangled waves down to her shoulders. Her ochre eyes told a similar story: blue circles hastily concealed with makeup and often concealed with sunglasses. She was sixteen, but she seemed serious beyond what her age would normally entail, preferring the company of books or a chess set instead of other people her age. She was strange in many ways, a sort of self-imposed oddness that she seemed to relish in as opposed to regret. She rejected the often revealing attire of an ordinary high school girl, choosing instead to wear loose flowing dresses that swirled around her knees and complimented her dancer's build. Because of these idiosyncrasies, she was quite alone at the school she attended.

Of course, high school was not what her life revolved around. She saw it as merely an obligation to her mother who insisted she maintain at least a semblance of normal life. In fact, if not for her mother's insistence, she would have spent the entirety of her day doing what she really liked to do – fence. In actuality, this was more of a laymen's term for what she did. There were no fencing clubs that allowed the weapon of her choice: a two handed claymore. However, there was one establishment that welcomed her with open arms. The Justice League.

Her mother, once known as Amethyst, but now simply Amy Winston, had passed on to her daughter not only one of her finest swords, but the elite knowledge to wield it as well as subtle magic that could be channeled through the blade. Though Anna was not the master that her mother had once been, she had potential that the Justice League did not overlook. So, since the age of 12, Anna trained rigorously towards the goal of becoming a full League member. However, a year ago, she had been placed in an elite group of young super-heroes in training and sent on missions to experience real life combat.

The Tunnel of Sighs was the headquarters for the Young Justice. It was an underground facility in Gotham that the Justice League had built originally as an arsenal, but repurposed for a new goal in mind. It served as a training area and a central command for all of them and quartering for a few of them. Though it was smaller than Mount Justice, it was much more concealed and protected and offered the League a more dynamic location in which to operate. Anna spent most of her nights and early mornings there to train with her team.

_"Name,"_ the electronic female voice stated when Anna entered the old greenhouse at the edge of Gotham, one of the entrances to the Tunnel of Sighs. She brushed bits of dirt out of her hair before she replied, noting the streaks of dirt that were sure to be evident on her pale skin.

"Tiger Eye," she stated, allowing herself to be scanned.

_"Recognized: Tiger Eye."_

Anna, or Tiger Eye as she was known to those in the Justice League, stood perfectly still as the floor beneath her suddenly dropped, delivering her safely, but a bit shakily, into the real entrance of the Tunnel of Sighs.

"Hey Tiger Eye, glad you finally showed," a tall boy with a lean frame and a head of messy curls called out to her through bites of the sandwich he was eating. Anna had walked into the kitchen area of the Tunnel on her way to the training room. "We were worried, there being no one here to eat the last sandwich. I had to have two," he continued, his elfish face turning up with a grin as he spilled crumbs from his mouth.

"Didn't seem to bother you all that much, Epsilon," Anna replied, elbowing him. Given her diminutive height in comparison to his, the action elicited a laugh from across the room.

"Hey, save it for training," a voice called from across the room. A girl whose height rivaled Epsilon's and whose imposing stature made him look like a twig, raised her eyebrow in mock disapproval. She was called Acedia for reasons she made very obvious in combat. "We're due there now so hurry up. The others are waiting."

"Friday night is fight night," Epsilon reminded Anna with a smirk as he made his way through a corridor to the main training area. Black Canary devoted Friday night sessions to intensive sparring, and even though they were a close team, the members of Young Justice still kept score.

Minutes later, the five members of the group stood around the center of the brightly lit training facility donning sleek black uniforms designed specifically for each member. Black Canary stood apart as she calibrated the surface of the arena. It kept track of the moves those sparring made as well as their successful hits and missteps.

"Tiger Eye and Epsilon, you're up. Remember, we're honing your powers so no additional weaponry," she said as soon as she completed, standing back to observe.

"My money's on Epsilon this time," a boy with short blue black hair and olive skin told Acedia quietly. "I haven't seen her comfortable without that sword."

"No way Dusk, Tiger Eye has this one in the bag, you'll see," Acedia replied. The last member of Young Justice, Orion, a stoic boy with dark brown hair and equally dark features, nodded in agreement.

"3…2…1...Commence," an electronic voice echoed throughout the room. Epsilon and Tiger Eye stared each other down.

Tiger Eye looked quickly around the room and absorbed the energy from the heat in the air, her ochre eyes glowing gold as she did so. The air smelled of ozone as she whirled around and thrust a flash of lightning from her hands, knocking Epsilon to the floor from the force of the blast. He laughed, unharmed, as he rolled out of the path of another aimed at him. He stood up and just looked at her whilst grinning. Tiger Eye took a step towards him but he raised a blue rectangular force field in front of her. It threw her backwards and she shot a bolt of lightning at it, only to see it absorb the blast and glow an even stronger blue. She made for the corner of the field, forcing Epsilon to shift its position. In the space it left, she shot another lightning bolt, catching Epsilon's shoulder and diminishing his force field abruptly. She aimed a kick behind his kneecap, knocking him off balance and causing him to crash to the floor of the arena. She moved in to finish the match by throwing him out of the arena, but before she could, he recovered by flipping backwards and landing on his feet. Before she could retaliate, a force field materialized in a dome around Epsilon that expanded rapidly, forcing her from the arena. As she fell onto the ground outside of it, a buzzer sounded.

_"Match complete," _the cold robotic voice stated.

"Told you," Dusk said to Acedia smugly.

"The point of this isn't who wins, it's learning from the mistakes that the opponents in the arena make," Black Canary interrupted coolly.

Behind her, Tiger Eye grudgingly accepted the hand Epsilon offered her in order to help her from the floor. She brushed herself off and returned with him to the group who stood in front of Black Canary.

"Hopefully you have gathered important information from this sparring match. It is imperative that you always think ahead. You even had the advantage of knowing your opponents capabilities. In a real combat situation, you must be constantly gathering intelligence about your opponent as well as predicting their next move."

After class Epsilon found Anna sitting in the study, a room containing a number of computers and shelves upon shelves of books. She was bent over a chess set studying strategy, her light hair covering her face. He sat in the seat across from her.

"You don't need to rub it in," Anna muttered.

"Geez, I would never do that. I came to ask you if you wanted to join us as we investigated a _disturbance_ downtown," Epsilon said, his blue eyes sparkling with anticipation.

"Is this an authorized mission?" Anna responded, meeting his eyes and raising her eyebrows.

"Of course not! But Black Canary left and Captain Marvel has been pretty much comatose since he got back after the last League business."

"Well…" she started.

"You're coming," Epsilon decided for her, grabbing her arm and pulling her to the hangar where the other members waited. Along with a large black jet, it housed five motorbikes and opened up into Gotham City.

"Let's roll," Acedia called out behind her. They headed into the night, deep into the concrete jungle of Gotham.


End file.
